Perfect is the enemy of progress
Animal testing won't end overnight, and death threats won't make NAMs work faster.
Good morning readers,
NIH officials are clapping back at White Coat Waste, and I have thoughts about it. But first, some housekeeping:
Today is my first day reporting at Transformer, where I’ll be covering AI policy full time. For the sake of my brain, The Replacement will be taking a break while I reorganize my work life. If you have NAM updates, animal research questions, or cat pictures in the meantime, you can reach me here.
Alright, let’s dive in.
In today’s newsletter:
💡 Two big stories: the latest White Coat Waste drama & new biotech bills
🙈 In other news: an ominous NIH memo, leadership boomerangs, and some good news about Australian rats and our First Amendment rights
💭 Commentary: on NAMs, economics, and theories of consciousness
🧪 In the weeds: help the WHO draft guidelines for replacing animal tests!
✨ + opportunities, events, and resources
Two big stories:
Unsurprisingly, there’s White Coat Waste drama again.
Nicole Kleinstreuer, the Acting NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, has been facing online death threats since becoming the face of the NIH’s animal research policy shift.
While PETA and other legacy animal rights groups have largely backed her efforts to reduce animal experimentation, White Coat Waste blames her for not pushing harder and faster.
In early July, WCW spokesperson Justin Goodman and MAGA conspiracist Laura Loomer joined forces against Kleinstreuer. “We want to put her on blast,” Loomer said.
Warren Casey, a senior NIH official leading the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods, used his personal Gmail to accuse WCW of waging a “reckless smear campaign” against Kleinstreuer.
An op-ed in the Washington Examiner interpreted this as the NIH “trying to silence external dissent.”
In response, WCW filed a complaint about his “defamatory” actions with the Department of Health and Human Services.
In a statement, WCW founder Anthony Belloti said, “While legacy ‘animal rights’ groups clap for NIH like trained seals, our federal complaint is the next step in holding Warren Casey and the Bhattacharya-Kleinstreuer NIH accountable.”
My take: Activists shoot themselves in the foot by claiming that the NIH can and should get rid of animal testing overnight, and that failure to do so is an obvious sign of evil or incompetence. It’s a gross oversimplification of the issue, and biologists can’t take that argument seriously.
In more productive political news, Republican Senator Todd Young has four AI-biotech bills in the works — and a couple could affect NAM development.
These bills aim to:
ramp up biosafety research
build a national network of “cloud labs,” remote-accessed research spaces where scientists can run AI-powered experiments from anywhere in the country, supported by up to $100 million from the National Science Foundation
open up national parks to sampling of animals, plants, and microbes
Niko McCarty, founding editor of Asimov Press, thinks this is a good thing: a native Yellowstone geyser resident, the heat-tolerant microbe Thermus aquaticus, wound up revolutionizing PCR decades after its initial discovery. Responsibly sampling from public lands — arguably for the sake of “pointless” basic science research — can lead scientists to incredible things.
create a centralized “web” of curated, labeled training-set-ready biological data
Many biologists don’t curate their data with AI in mind — but AI can’t replace animal models without good, clean training data. If this works, it could be a big deal.
In other news:
The NIH just called for an immediate review of all current and planned research activities, threatening that anything that doesn’t align with agency priorities “may be restricted, paused, not renewed, or terminated.”
Jay Bhattacharya sent a memo to NIH leadership on August 15, and didn’t provide a timeline. He did double down on the NIH’s intention to phase out animal testing.
But Jeremy Berg, former director of the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences, told reporter Darren Incorvaia that misalignment with “often poorly defined” priorities can justify gutting good projects. “It is like asking all of your children to justify what they are doing to help the family, and if you think their answers aren’t good enough, it’s off to the orphanage.”
Bernadette Juarez returned to her former role as Deputy Administrator for Animal Care at the USDA, where she will once again be responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act.
Since she last held this title under the first Trump administration, the USDA has been accused of prioritizing business interests over animals.
Juarez’s reappointment is concerning. The USDA is already failing to enforce the Animal Welfare Act — things are unlikely to get better under her leadership.
ICYMI: Animal law expert Delcianna Winders told The Replacement how a wonky securities fraud case broke animal welfare enforcement.
Vinay Prasad left his role as the FDA’s top biotech regulator — reportedly driven out by pressure from MAGA activists — then rejoined almost immediately.
This is just one of a series of chaotic agency moves rocking the biopharma industry. With mass layoffs and rising attrition, the FDA’s workforce is struggling to keep up with drug regulation.
In this vein, Katherine Wu wrote a great story for the Atlantic: How many times can science funding be canceled?
Some good news! The Australian Veterinary Association recommended that Animal Ethics Committees should ban Forced Swim Tests and Forced Smoke Inhalation Experiments.
More good news! Madeline Krasno, a former primate lab worker and a friend of The Replacement, successfully sued UW-Madison for censoring her social media comments about campus animal abuse.
Krasno commented on several UW-Madison social media posts to call for the closure of the university’s primate research labs, but the comments were deleted by keyword filters against terms like “animal testing.”
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found that the university violated Krasno’s First Amendment rights. Read more here and here.
Today, Krasno leads Justify, a nonprofit holding much-needed space for animal researchers to process their experiences.
Commentary:
On the NAM readiness debate:
Science | The US wants to phase out animal research. Are alternatives ready?
The Readout LOUD (a STAT podcast) | Vinay Prasad’s return, animal testing alternatives, and mRNA upended
Forbes | How AI and mini-organs could replace testing drugs on animals
On the culture of animal research:
Replacing Animal Research | Who cares for the carers?
The Transmitter | Peggy Mason helped define the rodent prosocial behavior field, but now she’s changing course
Nature | Can creativity in science be learnt? These researchers think so
On signs of consciousness:
The Transmitter | Babies, bees and bots: On the hunt for markers of consciousness
Nature | How to detect consciousness in people, animals and maybe even AI
On the price of NAMs:
Nature | Organs on chips could make biomedical research more equitable
Sustainability Directory | Could organ-on-chips widen health disparities?
The Scientist | Smart biology on a budget: Why researchers should leverage AI to rethink experimental design
Journal of Biosciences | Pharmaceutical adoption of microphysiological systems in India is contingent on their economics
One more thing: a new review compared how well in vitro NAMs, microphysiological systems, and animal studies predict drug-induced liver injury. While performance varied greatly, in vitro tests generally outperformed existing animal models.
Notably not included: AI models. Next time!
In the weeds:
The World Health Organization is seeking comments and suggestions on a draft of their guidelines for replacing animal tests for the quality control of biological products. Send your thoughts to Dr. Dianliang Lei at leid@who.int by September 19.
Meanwhile in the industry:
The Pharmaletter | AI drug discovery start-up Chai raises $70 million to expand antibody design platform
Fierce Biotech | Frazier Life Sciences raises $1.3B for latest early-stage biotech venture fund
The Boston Globe | Boston’s lab building boom has gone bust. What can be done with the empty space?
Opportunities:
Add yourself to the NAM expert pool database
Join the Global Education Hub for animal-free innovation
Are you a postdoc? The Scientist would love to feature you in their Postdoc Portrait series!
Meetings:
August 31-September 4: WC13 is almost here! Last-minute day passes are still available.
September 10-11, 17-18, 10a-1:30p EST: 12th annual (virtual) 3Rs symposium
September 15: IC-3Rs Symposium at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium. Abstracts are due August 18.
October 23-24: Young TPI Conference (Transition Programme to Animal-Free Innovations) at Het Trippenhuis, Amsterdam
Webinars:
August 27, 12p EST: How Organoids Are Revolutionizing Neuroscience Research
September 4, 12p BST: The Replacement Checklist for Grant Reviewers
September 22, 9a EST: Animal-Free Innovation in Cosmetics and Drugs Safety Assessment
October 14, 1p EST: Replacing Animal Use in Botulinum Neurotoxin Testing
Applications:
Due August 31: The Pasca Lab is looking for a postdoc interested in neural organoids and human brain development (no prior experience in stem cells, organoids, or assembloids required).
Due August 31: The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health is seeking concepts for NAMs pilot projects.
Due September 30: Nominate yourself or someone else for the 3Rs Hall of Honor, celebrating the people advancing the mission of human science.
✨ Need more info?
Check out the NAM Navigator.
Here’s a resource round-up from Alternatives to Laboratory Animals.
There’s also TSAR, a Tracking System for Alternative Methods Towards Regulatory Acceptance. Read more about it here!
Is your research group considering phasing out animals? Check out this replacement checklist by Replacing Animal Research. They also have a guide on how to search for NAMs.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing compiled another giant list of resources for us.
RE-Place just added one as well.
Missing something? Let me know!
Wishing you a minimally-stressful week ahead,
Celia